Fallout 76's perfectly catastrophic launch is likely to follow it throughout the entirety of its lifespan. From the infamous canvas bag controversy to the obligatory Bethesda-style bugs and exploits plaguing it, players had a lengthy list of legitimate reasons for setting it aside. If they didn't avoid it entirely.
Though Fallout 76's future looked vaguely apocalyptic at best, Bethesda has nonetheless provided an admirably steady stream of hotfixes, gameplay enhancements and new content like Wild Appalachia in an attempt to recover from the bungled state of its release. A lot of progress has been made (although not all changes are positive things), but is it really enough to tempt disgruntled players to check back into Appalachia? Check out the ten biggest changes to Fallout 76 below and find out!
10 Stash Size Doubled
The initial four hundred pound limit placed on CAMP stashes at launch was uncomfortably restrictive, especially for anyone familiar with the hoarder-friendly tendencies of Bethesda's RPG catalog.
The limit has since doubled in size, and players' private stashes can now house eight hundred pounds' worth of guns, assorted stuffed animals, and desk fans. While that still feels a bit too low for some, it is an absolutely massive step in the right direction.
9 CAMPs Got Bigger & Better
The budget for a player's camp didn't necessarily increase, but the exorbitant budget consumption of some items (such as turrets) was drastically reduced. The end result left players able to build bigger and better structures in their CAMPs, with a lot more free space to put together truly impressive creations.
It's also worth mentioning the "Bulldozing" update here, which lets players mow through smaller obstructions such as trees and boulders to put together their structures. It doesn't sound like much initially, but it really goes a long way for players constructing more elaborate setups.
8 Project Paradise
Another point of painful contention was the apparent lack of real endgame content in Fallout 76, with players feeling like they'd pretty much seen it all after setting off a few nukes and shooting down the Scorchbeast Queen a time or twelve.
While many new events (and even a dungeon) have been added to fill out the empty space, the one that seems most squarely aimed at addressing that issue is Project Paradise. It's a high level event practically guaranteeing a three-star legendary spawn, which heavily encourages grouping up. If this is the direction that they're going with the upcoming raiding content, things are looking a little brighter.
7 Legendary Exchange Machines & Purveyor Murmrgh
Often enough, hunting for Legendary weapons meant leaving dozens of less desirable ones to rot on the corpses that dropped them. Now, however, they can be taken to Legendary Exchange Machines and exchanged for a special currency called Legendary Scrip.
In turn, this currency can be taken the Legendary Purveyor in Berkeley Springs (a friendly mole miner who's fond of flowers) and traded for a new, randomized Legendary item. Players can choose whether they'd like to generate a piece of armor or a weapon, and can opt for one, two, or three stars depending on how much Scrip they have to burn.
6 Weapon Balancing
Some weapons were absurdly powerful, some were broken to the point of uselessness, and others simply had mechanics that didn't make any sense. While this was part and parcel to the offline Fallout experience, bringing it online where it would impact the experiences of others was a matter that 76 was obviously not prepared for.
However, it can't be said that Bethesda hasn't put some solid effort into it since then. Grenade launchers and gauss rifles got associated with their appropriate damage boosting perks, and the legendarily lethal combination of "two shot" and "explosive" Legendary attributes got subjected to a brutal-yet-warranted nerf.
5 Players Can Now Respec Their SPECIAL Attributes
Swapping out perk cards has always been breezy and intuitive. However, players under the impression that they'd be able to max out their statistics were in for a rude awakening after level fifty. They were stuck with whichever poorly informed or experimental decisions they'd made while assigning their SPECIAL points.
Thankfully, players have since been given the option to either select a perk card or move one of their statistics for every level achieved after fifty, making a full respec totally possible so long as they're willing to grind for it.
4 Survival Mode
PVP encounters are a real mess in the core Fallout 76 experience, with players doing very little damage to one another until they've returned hostilities (or they've elected to take over optional workshop areas to harvest resources). For some, this robbed encounters with other players of the tension and drama they wanted.
Bethesda's solution to this was to develop Survival Mode, which lifts PVP restrictions, provides greater risk to losing in PVP and greater reward for defeating other players. Characters also gain a flat increase to all experience earned in survival mode, so there's plenty of incentive to play in the more dangerous setting.
3 Repair Kits In The Atomic Shop
As if Bethesda needed to face any further controversy with Fallout 76, they seemed to go back on their word concerning the Atomic Shop by adding a consumable with a pronounced gameplay impact. So much for "cosmetic only."
Granted, it doesn't seem to introduce any egregious imbalances that would result in a "pay to win" situation, as all these consumables do is repair equipment. At most, it saves the player a bit of time and some crafting materials. But it does seem to contradict their previous stance on the cash shop, and creates some valid concern about where it might go from there.
2 Backpacks
And they're not just for looks, either. The Wild Appalachia update included a nice bunch of content, but many players were hyped enough just to get functional backpacks along with it.
Bumping the character's carry weight by a significant amount is reward enough for completing the set of quests associated with them, but they can also be outfitted with a healthy selection of modifications to increase their utility, including a "refrigerator" attachment that extends the shelf life of perishable items and food.
1 Player Vending Terminals
Arguably the most important addition made to the game since launch, players now have the ability to build their own vending terminals in their CAMP and load them up with all the junk they'd like to sell to other players. Even better, stocked and powered terminals broadcast a short list of what's on offer via the world map.
This stimulates player interaction, trade, and CAMP vanity in ways that the game desperately needed, bumping the quality of life in the West Virginian Wasteland exponentially.